chrisfenwick.com

Remember Yikes and Sawtooth?
August 17, 2002

Remember the YIKES, Sawtooth transition when the G4 was first released? My hope is that we are in a similar transitional stage...

When Apple first introduced the G4 the motherboard architecture was "not quite done" so they had a tough decision to make... Keeping in mind it takes MONTHS to turn around a circuit design they very quickly came up with the YIKES motherboard, which was used on the first gen, actually more like a half generation, of G4's... about 3 months later Apple quietly started releasing G4's with the Sawtooth motherboard.

Now I can't begin to tell you all the differences in the two boards but I remember that the Sawtooth was suppose to be WAY superior.

So, what if that is the deal here?

What if the 1.25 machines 'quietly intro" the Moto 7470 instead of the overclocked 7455 that is in the current "Bowling Macs" named for the 4 "finger holes" in the front.

If you notice on the spec pages there is no mention of which chip is used... that allows Apple to start dropping in the 7470, which according to pre show rumors was not quite abundant enough for release. So maybe they are reserving them for the 1.25 machines.

I too am concerned about some of the choices but I continue to ask myself this questions?

Do you think Apple would knowingly CHOOSE to use a slower bus, slower chip, etc, if they thought they had an alternative that would cause less grumbling in the Mac Community?

Also, remember Apple has a past philosophy, (since the return of Steve) to put "all their wood behind one arrow" - or something like that.

This summer the ARROW was clearly about software (iApps and Jaguar), last year the ARROW was all about consumer machines, iBooks and Flat Panel iMacs.

Others have said that maybe Apple rushed this to satisfy the people bitching that nothing was released at Mac World, well... maybe but that doesn't make that much sense to me.

My guess is that in 2003 the ARROW will be the PRO market and if they are going to put all their WOOD behind that ARROW then they should release a real kick ass G4.5 or whatever and probably a total rework of the G4 Powerbook, new casing or something.

I'm a fan, not a blind follower but a user who is repelled by the alternative at a gut level that can barely be expressed by words on a screen. My repulsion to the other choice is so strong and so passionate that I often offend people. So I'll leave that for a face to face someday, not that anyone really cares.

With the economy the way it is, I'm gonna pass on the first Rev of the BOWLING MAC and continue to make due with the what I have. If work picks up so much I need more processing power, I'll go buy one in a heartbeat. But for now, I'm gonna wait.

Chris Fenwick
www.chrisfenwick.com